


With You at the End of the World

by MegaWallflower



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Heart-to-Heart, M/M, Missing Scene, The Last: Naruto the Movie, Wheelchairs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26484634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaWallflower/pseuds/MegaWallflower
Summary: “If the world were to end tomorrow, who would you like to spend your last day with?”
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Comments: 4
Kudos: 93





	With You at the End of the World

“What would you do if you knew the world was ending soon?” Kakashi spoke gently, quietly, with just the ghost of a smile curving his lips, like he was at peace with the thought of that eventuality. His face appeared serene, but his eyes were hard and bright, gaze pinned sharply on Guy. “How would you spend your remaining time?”

 _Who would you spend it with_ , he almost asked, but Kakashi held himself back for now. They would get there shortly. He had a lifetime’s worth of patience.

The sudden questions broke what had been a very comfortable silence between them, as Kakashi lounged on the couch, watching intently as Guy showed off his new-and-improved exercise routine. His modified wheelchair was strapped to his legs while he bounced side to side, balanced on his hands. Guy had always loved doing side-steps, and this was the version he had perfected to suit his current needs. It was mesmerizing to see the way he adapted so Guy wouldn’t give up on anything he loved in this new life of his.

And it also meant that Kakashi didn’t have to give up his love of watching Guy do pushups. Like this, Kakashi could still lay back and watch the way the muscles in Guy’s arms and his back flexed and stretched against the fabric of his jumpsuit, the way his hair cascaded and fluttered with every move. This wheelchair was smaller, lighter, and sportier, in a way that made agile exercises like this less of a danger to Guy and his surroundings, and more importantly, in a way that let Guy show off more of himself.

It was unfair. Just as everything had fallen into place this nicely, the whole world was going to fall apart. It was like some cruel joke. Kakashi wanted more time to enjoy this. He’d use all the time left the world had left him.

Kakashi admired the design of the chair and the perfect way it accentuated Guy’s powerful features and solid form. The new uniform vest couldn’t hang open like the old one, which was a shame, but it was still sleek enough that Guy made it work. There were few outfits Guy couldn’t make work with his figure. Kakashi’s gaze wandered, traced an invisible path down to the place where Guy was craning his neck to look over at Kakashi.

Guy was shooting Kakashi a disbelieving gawk and one of his signature pouts. “What? What sort of question is that?” he complained, shaking his hair out of his face and giving Kakashi a frustrated huff. Guy pushed off the ground in a hop and spun to land on his wheels with a loud, heavy thud. The wheelchair didn’t even creak. A testament to Tenten’s craftsmanship. “What’s with that defeatist attitude?”

Kakashi fiddled with his gloves pensively. “I’m just curious,” was all the explanation he offered to Guy. “Come on, give me an answer.”

While he stretched his arms over his head, shaking out the aches in his muscles, Guy turned the question back on Kakashi. “Well, what would you do?”

“Me? I’d…” Kakashi’s expression turned puzzled and he pretended to mull over the question for a minute. But he already had his answer, had already given it plenty of thought and knew exactly what he wanted. It just took a bit of courage to say aloud. “I would want spend it together with my most precious person… I guess.”

Guy rolled his eyes, wheeling himself across the room. “That sounds like a line straight out of Icha Icha… A romantic and a defeatist and a hokage, all in one! My rival’s quite the combination!”

“You still haven’t answered the question, Guy.”

“Ha! No, I guess I haven’t! Let’s see… At the end of the world, I’d…” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and he gathered all the passion he'd cultivated over the years around himself like a mantle. The grin on his face was an excited, challenging one; Kakashi was both apprehensive of and reassured by the sight of it, considering the context. “I would stop the world from ending, of course!” he declared, with all the weight and presence of a true beast, and with nothing at all to actually back it up. Chakra and intent flared as his hands gripped his wheels. He really thought he could take the world on his own.

Kakashi was stuck between the competing of thoughts of _the world is ending, it’s okay to be more somber, Guy_ and _the world is ending, and you were always the best part of it, so to the very end, please, never change, Guy._

He simply said, “Are you serious?”

Guy spun on his wheels and struck a vibrant Good Guy Pose. “Of course, I’m serious, Kakashi! Mine is the perfect answer! If you give up, you just become a loser at life!”

Kakashi didn’t appreciate being called a coward, but he held back the urge to challenge it. He didn’t want to waste what little time they had together. “No, in a scenario like that, you lose your life either way… But that’s just like you.” Kakashi chuckled sardonically and rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t even let me spend my final hours peacefully? I’m going to be dragged along on one of your crazy self-promises even in my final moments?”

That made Guy deflate slightly. “What are you talking about?” Not discouraged, but definitely confused.

Kakashi blushed and glanced away and shrugged, a slim shifting of his shoulders against the fabric of his seat. “I said it already, didn’t I?” He muttered, ears tinting pink. “‘I want to spend the end of the world together with my most precious person’.”

It took a while, but the meaning of the indirect confession finally sunk in. Kakashi pinpoint the exact moment the words dawned on Guy and his eyes filled with tears. “Ka… Kakashi…!” And just like that, Guy was reduced to a sentimental, blubbering mess.

Kakashi smiled. He really loved him. The back of Kakashi’s gloved hand rested thoughtfully against his lips as he considered whether or not to say anything more. “Okay. I’ll tell you the truth,” Kakashi decided.

He sat up and pushed off the couch with casual ease. Drifting across the room, he laid a hand on Guy’s arm, and tugged at a swath of fine green cloth with an urgency that surprised both of them. “This is a secret shared among only the kage. But you’re my better half, so I’ll let you in on it, Guy,” Kakashi whispered, kneeling down and leaning in to keep his voice low. His hands twisted Guy’s sleeve fretfully. He slowly lifted his gaze to meet Guy’s eyes. They could each look in both of each other’s eyes now. That was nice. Kakashi was going to miss it, all over again.

Guy blinked. “Oh! Is this something classified?” He asked, way too loudly, then lowered his voice, like it made a different at that point, “Is it really okay?”

“If they didn’t want you to know all our secrets, they wouldn’t have picked me as Hokage,” Kakashi winked. He’d only recently gotten back the ability to properly wink. It was so bittersweet. “When have I ever successfully kept anything secret from you?”

Kakashi tugged one of his fingerless gloves off slowly, finger by finger. Supple black leather with a slim fold at the wrist gradually peeled away, and for a second, Kakashi hesitated, fingers curling guardedly over the palm of his hand.

There was a soft warmth playing between them as Guy’s eyes flicked from Kakashi’s hands to his face. Another secret, just between the two of them. The trust between them was something Kakashi couldn’t find anywhere else.

When the glove was fully off, Kakashi held out his hand to Guy, palm up, settled in Guy’s lap. Guy dropped his gaze then, eyes drawn to the sight of Kakashi’s hand, unwrapped like a surprise present.

A small, thin disc with golden characters etched in whirred to life on Kakashi’s palm, glowing dimly, spinning and ticking away seconds and minutes. A clock, counting down.

Guy recoiled, gripping onto the wheels of his chair to roll back. “What’s this timer for?” He asked, knuckles turning white. “Kakashi, this isn’t another time-release seal like the one Lady Tsunade put on you before, is it?”

Kakashi remembered that. Being a living time bomb, at his own request. He took death so lightly back then.

He didn’t want to die now, though. He finally had a life he wanted to live. “No, it’s a timer. All of the other kage have one just like it.” Kakashi shook his head. “The moon is about to be crashed into the earth. This is a countdown to the second when our planet will be destroyed. We don’t have the manpower to counter it or stop it. We think it might be tied to the Otsutsuki. When this timer runs out, our world will…” Kakashi trailed off and looked back at Guy to gauge his reaction to this news. “When this timer runs out, the person I want beside me is you, Guy. Will you be there with me?”

Guy stared back at him, poker-faced and unblinking, before his expression broke apart into a grin. Then the grin broke into laughter so loud and boisterous and genuine that it shook Guy’s shoulders and their house and Kakashi’s heart. “Pfft— What? Is that it? Just that, and you’re afraid the world is coming to an end? Our hokage is shaking in his boots from something so minor! I expect better from you, Kakashi!”

The laughter sounded out in the empty room, the bubbling sort of giggle that could only belong to Guy. It took a moment for the shock to wear off enough for Kakashi to find his voice again, for Kakashi to focus on the words instead of the laughter that had carried him through his darkest moments every time before. Kakashi had to look away again, this time focusing on the wheels of Guy’s chair. “…Yeah. Sure,” He gritted out, “I’m the silly type who expects the world and my life to end from little things like the planet I’m living on being demolished by extremely powerful alien ninjutsu,” Kakashi deadpanned, furrowing his eyebrows. “I’m silly for looking at the facts and accepting reality.”

“Yep, exactly, you’re being ridiculous! Oh, you of little faith! Where would you be without me, you eternal pessimist?” Guy mocked out.

Kakashi looked back up at him, mouth dropping open with a protest already formed on his tongue. But then he really got a look at Guy, expression soft-edged with sympathy and promise. Kakashi’s teeth come together with a dissatisfied clack, biting back the words he'd meant to say.

“…In the war,” Guy continued, because this time, Kakashi wouldn’t break the silence himself. “I was already ready to die for you, Kakashi. I said so, many times. And when we fell out of that airship, I held your hands and was ready to die with you. I’ve spent too much of my life ready to die. But not anymore. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m not turning my back on living. I’ve decided. You asked me once to always be by your side. I’ll answer you this time. Instead of dying, I, Might Guy, am ready to _live_ for you and with you! That’s why I’m confident that this little countdown will amount to nothing! I’m not ending, and neither is our world!” He was posturing, puffing out his chest and acting all tough, pretending he was invincible. But Kakashi knew Guy, and would never mistake the raw determination and bravery underlying his words for anything besides that simple truth. He refused to let himself think it wasn’t the truth.

And those words – _our_ world. Kakashi’s expression softened, because from the way he said it, he could tell that Guy wasn’t just talking about the world for the future generations, or the world for the leaf, or the world of shinobi.

He meant the world Kakashi and Guy had built up together. Their personal springtime. Their personal eternities.

Kakashi looked away, staring to the side at the wall. It took him a long moment, expression shifting subtly as he composed words in his head. “…Yeah, I guess you have a point. I don’t have to worry so much about this timer. The world won’t be ending. There’s nothing that we can’t accomplish together. Isn’t that right?”

At that, Guy’s smile widened. “That’s right! Now you’re talking! The two of us have defeated even the jaws of death and come back to tell the tale! We have our whole lives ahead of us! You can just spend that with your most precious person, instead of a few measly minutes at the very end of the world!”

Kakashi’s eyes crinkled gently with the implication of a smile. “Even though it’s not the end, looks like I’ll be hanging out with you anyway. We’ll just be together, like we always are.” He slipped the fingerless glove back onto his hand and gave it a snap. This countdown didn’t matter at all. He had a hunch that Guy would still be around to smugly grin at him the day after this timer ticked out. The holes in leather pulled tight over Kakashi’s finger and let out an audible creak as he flexed them into a thumbs-up. “And while we’re at it, I guess we might as well try to save the world, huh?”

“Absolutely! You’re such a great leader, I know the world won’t end! So, when the sun comes up the next day, and you were wrong, and I was right, I get to rub it in your face! As the man who surpassed our sixth hokage, I’ll happily boast about it far and wide!”

Kakashi sighed and stood back up. “Maa… Now I don’t know if I should root for the moon or not.”


End file.
